OBAMA APPOINTS FIRST OPENLY TRANSGENDER WHITE HOUSE STAFF.

The White House has hired its first openly transgender staff member.

The White House announced Raffi Freedman-Gurspan's appointment on Tuesday as the Outreach and Recruitment Director for Presidential Personnel in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel.

Freedman-Gurspan, 28, who in the past went by the name Rafael, was adopted from Honduras and grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Freedman-Gurspan previously was a policy adviser for the National Center for Transgender Equality's racial and economic justice initiative.

Advocates hailed her appointment as an important step for the LGBT community and for ensuring that the federal government includes the voices and experiences of all Americans.

White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett says Freedman-Gurspan's commitment to improving the lives of transgender Americans reflects the values of the Obama administration.

'Raffi Freedman-Gurspan demonstrates the kind of leadership this Administration champions,' said Jarrett in a statement. 

'Her commitment to bettering the lives of transgender Americans, particularly transgender people of color and those in poverty, reflects the values of this Administration.'

Mara Kiesling, the executive director of National Center of Transgender Equality, said she was 'elated' about Freedman-Gurspan's appointment.

'President Obama has long said he wants his Administration to look like the American people. I have understood this to include transgender Americans,' said Kiesling. 

'A transgender person was inevitably going to work in the White House. That the first transgender appointee is a transgender woman of color is itself significant.'

According to Freedman-Gurspan's LinkedIn she previously served as the legislative director to State Rep. Carl M. Sciortino Jr. in Boston, the LGBT liaison for the city of Somerville, Massachusetts, and as a legislative and policy staffer at the Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition.

Freedman-Gurspan made history in Massachusetts, where she was the first transgender woman working at the Massachusetts State House.

'Raffi is a role model,' Massachusetts state Rep. Carl Sciortino Jr said in a statement.

'As the first out transgender woman working at the Massachusetts State House, she showed leadership and courage, and among her many contributions, was instrumental in helping pass the Transgender Equal Rights Law.' 

David Stacey, head of government affairs for Human Rights Campaign (HRC), told ABC that Freedman-Gurspan 'is a smart, quiet woman who is very thoughtful and very diplomatic.'

'It's very illustrative of how she likes to listen first before she talks,' said Stacey. 

Freedman-Gurspan is a graduate of St. Olaf College with a degree in political science and Norwegian. While in college she was in the Jewish Students Organization (JSO). 

She lists human rights, LGBT rights, social justice movements and indigenous peoples in her interests section on her LinkedIn.